CASTING WATCH: McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths

Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits and Olga Kurylenko have joined Martin McDonagh’s “Seven Psychopaths,” which began production in LA this week with stars Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken. Mickey Rourke was previously in talks but will not be in the film. McDonagh is the Irish playwright whose underappreciated big-screen directorial debut, “In Bruges,” boasted Farrell’s career-best performance (and earned an Oscar nom for original screenplay).

The film follows Farrell, a LA-based screenwriter struggling with his script (called Seven Psychopaths). He finds inspiration after getting dragged into dognapping escapades with his friends (Rockwell and Walken) when the Shih Tzu of a psychopathic gangster (Harrelson) goes missing. He just needs to stay alive long enough to write it all down. This all sounds very McDonagh, a black comedy master who knows how to combine humor, violence and excruciatingly vulnerable human beings (and their beloved pets: read The Lieutenant of Inishmore). No word yet on Waits’ and Kurylenko’s characters.

Blueprint Pictures is producing with Film4, BFI Film Fund and CBS Films co-financing. CBS Films will handle US distribution.